Mobile communication devices, such as cellular telephones, can communicate with each other through infrastructure provided by a service provider or directly using a wireless peer-to-peer (P2P) standard. Direct P2P communication between mobile communication devices uses less battery power than communication between the same devices through service provider infrastructure. Thus, using direct P2P communication can be advantageous when possible to increase battery life. However, direct P2P communication between mobile communication devices can be difficult to facilitate.
For example, to support direct P2P communication, mobile communication devices need to be within a certain geographical range of each other, and users typically have to be aware that both the sending and receiving mobile communication device are within this geographical range. Thus, to support P2P functionality, mobile communication devices typically have to periodically scan for other mobile communication devices in range. This scanning requires extra processing and battery power.
Features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which like reference characters identify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.